Movie Clip Wednesday

~ 63mago

“Political thriller” A Boxer saied. Italian cinema had its glory days in the 1950s and 60s, starting with the Neorealismo (Ger. – ignore all that post-modernist nonsense speak in this article -,  Eng.) of the 1940s that culminated in the masterpiece Roma, città aperta (Ger., Eng.) from 1945. The (semi-)documentary style of many later productions surely was heavily influenced by that.
The film I want to recomend here, impressed my when I saw it for the first time on tv, sometimes in the 1970s. Directed by Francesco ROSI (dt.Artikel) (1922) (Ger., Eng.)  it deals with the development of post war Naples. ROSI made some very interesting and controverse films in the post-neorealistic aera, later he turned towards the filmization of literature and made pictures from works of Primo LEVI (Ger., Eng.) and G.G.MÁRQUEZ (Ger., Eng.).

Edoardo NOTTOLA is a ruthless businessman and member of the council of the city of Napoli. He uses  everybody for his success. A house collapses, people die. An inquiry is made. In one of the key scenes NOTTOLA is embraced by a senior member of the council, he’s back in from the cold. Things are fixed, all is well. They are ALL corrupt. The construction business always was one of the strongholds of the Camorra (Ger., Eng.), until this very day.
The film is named Le mani sulla città (It., Eng.) (1963), NOTTOLA is embodied by Rodney Stephen STEIGER (1925-2002) (Ger., Eng.).

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Here is a part of a documentation about the film, showing (from 1:13)  how people lived in Neapolis 1963.

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Published by 63mago

Want better dingaling ? No.

9 thoughts on “Movie Clip Wednesday”

  1. Thanks for playing! What a great movie/clip about something I really know little about. I’m always glad when you participate because I see a whole other side to cinema. Great post and pick. Happy Movie Clip Wednesday!

  3. Boxer has hit the nail on the head.

    You always have a different perspective on things and your intelligent assessment always teaches me something new.

    You rock!

  4. An interesting movie thanks Mago. You do give a thorough insight into many non Hollywood movies. I find your take on these movies to be very refreshing and look forward to your participation.

    Happy MCW.

  5. Oh Gottogott … I only rock with my chair, dear Roses.

    Yes, outside Hollywood were/are films made too. I think Hollywood needs to re-juvenate, to re-invent itself now, dear Princess. They churn out the blam-blam-fillums, the music-fillums, one or another “drama”-fillum and a number of remakes. If the French make a good movie, Hollywood has to copy it one to one – I never understood that. In this respect I think “True Grit” is a kind of end-point, not so much a starting point, but I may be totally wrong.
    If you look at it, there are not so many different stories to tell: There may be a dozen or less basic figures. And always aim at the “average visitor’s taste”, whatever that may be. A projection that aims at a projection, illusions for the illusion, ach … dance pixel, dance.

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